I would have liked to have compiled the Vanguard's second annual City Council Scorecard for 2009 but there is one big problem, to do so, I would have to reconstruct votes from Vanguard articles and memory.  Why is that?  Because if you go to the council Agendas and Minutes webpage, you see that the last minutes posted from Tuesday, December 9 of 2008!

That makes it a little difficult to go back and look at how people voted.  I know it has been brought up during the council meetings at least once.

While we have always encouraged lively debate, it is our belief that the tone has become too nasty.  People are able to right now post under multiple psuedonyms trying at times to make it appear that there are more people in agreement on their view.  A very small percentage of the readership of the Vanguard actually participates in the discussions.  Part of that may be the tone.  The hope here is that by establishing consistent names, even if they are assumed names, we will develop a community and there will become familiarity with each poster.

The Vanguard has proven partially if not mostly successful in its efforts to quash a subpoena seeking records by the plaintiffs in the suit Calvin Chang v. the Regents of the University of California.

The plaintiff’s subpoena sought identifying information, including names and addresses, of those individuals who under the names “Mack Chuchillo” and "anonymous” posted certain comments about Mr. Chang and his lawsuit. The comments were posted on the Vanguard just a few days after plaintiff filed suit in February 2009.